Field
The present disclosure relates to optical communication equipment and, more specifically but not exclusively, to photonic integrated circuits.
Description of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are used for various applications in telecommunications, instrumentation, and signal-processing fields. A PIC typically uses optical waveguides to implement and/or interconnect various circuit components, such as optical switches, couplers, routers, splitters, multiplexers/demultiplexers, filters, modulators, phase shifters, lasers, amplifiers, wavelength converters, optical-to-electrical (O/E) and electrical-to-optical (E/O) signal converters, etc. PICs generally enable the production of more-compact, more-cost-effective, and/or better-performing optical systems, e.g., as compared to the corresponding optical systems that are based on discrete optical components. For at least this reason, various types of integration for use in PIC manufacturing are being currently actively developed.